


Memory or Not, Here I Come

by ominousunflower



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Established Relationship (Ladynoir), F/M, Identity Reveal, Season 3 Spoilers, Temporary Amnesia, first time i've used that tag lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:36:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28582101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ominousunflower/pseuds/ominousunflower
Summary: When Chat Noir is late to their date and an akuma battle, Ladybug figures he’ll be there any second—but then an amnesiac Adrien Agreste comes to her rescue instead.“Look out!”Someone slams into Ladybug, knocking her out of the way just as a beam of light whizzes past her temple. She lands on her back, looking up at blond hair and green eyes. “Thanks—wait, Adrien?”“Oh, is that my name?” Adrien asks. “I was going to introduce myself, and then I realized that I don’t remember who I am.”
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 46
Kudos: 401





	Memory or Not, Here I Come

**Author's Note:**

  * For [roomhermit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roomhermit/gifts).



> Written for [Room Hermit](https://a-room-hermit.tumblr.com/) as part of APS’s Secret Santa event! Fluff, a reveal caused by an akuma, and established-relationship Ladynoir! (And a few easter eggs involving Youtubers I've seen you mention, because I'm lame like that.) 
> 
> I ended the fic in the most natural place, but I figured you might appreciate some bonus scenes (and some Marichat), so I'll be posting those scenes as the "second chapter". This is technically a one-shot, though!

Evening sunlight cuts through the winter chill, heating the rooftop where Ladybug sits on a picnic blanket. She fiddles with the handle of the basket she brought, eyes flicking back and forth across the horizon in search of Chat Noir. 

It’s not strange that he’s a few minutes late. Even if Ladybug doesn’t know the details, she knows that Chat’s civilian schedule is a nightmare—really, from the way he describes it, she’s surprised that he hardly ever misses an akuma attack.

But then, it’s not too surprising. He’s one of the most dependable people she knows, after all.

One of his many commitments probably ran late, which is fine. Ladybug doesn’t have anywhere to be, and the food she brought isn’t going to get cold. 

In the basket are two thermoses—one of coffee for Ladybug, and one of sickeningly sweet hot chocolate for her sugar-loving boyfriend—along with a variety of pastries from her family’s bakery. Chat had promised to handle the ambiance for their date before Ladybug arrived, which…well, he hadn’t, but again, Ladybug doesn’t fault him for running late. She doesn’t really care about candles or rose petals, anyway. She just wants to spend time with her partner.

Her partner…who still hasn’t arrived.

Ladybug sighs and checks her yo-yo. It’s only thirteen minutes after their date was supposed to start, but hadn’t Chat said that his evening was free today? What could have held him up?

“Stop worrying,” Ladybug mutters to herself.

Maybe he spotted a civilian in distress. Maybe he passed yet another cat stuck in a tree. Whatever it is, it can’t be a big deal. Any second now, he’ll send an apologetic message that he’s running late, and then he’ll send a dozen heart and rose emojis, and everything will be fine. Because that’s what Chat does—he apologizes too much, and showers Ladybug with lovey-dovey emoticons, and reassures her whenever she’s starting to spiral.

Ladybug wiggles her foot and waits, eyes scanning the sky.

A few minutes later, her yo-yo beeps urgently—but it’s not Chat’s ringtone. No, it’s an akuma alert. 

So much for the date.

Ladybug tries to call Chat, but the call goes straight to voicemail. Chat’s lilting voice sings that he’ll get back to her as soon as possible—and she hangs up before he finishes, her forehead pinched in a frown.

He’s not transformed, then, but hopefully he’ll make it to the akuma battle.

Ladybug swings off the rooftop toward the spot her akuma alert mentioned. While she would normally follow the sound of screams, there don’t seem to be too many right now. She notices a few cars stopped in the street, a few rear-end accidents, a few people wandering down the sidewalks, but most folks seem to have hidden themselves inside.

She supposes that’s a testament to just how common akuma attacks are. It’s good that people know what to do in an emergency, of course. At the same time, it frustrates Ladybug that after all this time, she and Chat Noir still haven’t managed to stop the attacks on their city.

Then Ladybug hears a shout from below, off to the left. She adjusts her course and perches on a rooftop overlooking the street, searching for any signs of danger.

Almost instantly, she spots a large brown figure barreling down the middle of the road. At first, Ladybug thinks it’s a human-sized squirrel—and then she realizes that it _is,_ sort of, except more like a mascot suit. Its plastic tail bobs behind it as it runs, and a golden crown sits on its head.

As Ladybug tenses to leap to the street below, she hears the figure yell something about being _king of the squirrels._ Is that its akuma name? Is it a sentimonstre? At this point, having fought babies and robots and animated ice cream, Ladybug supposes a humanoid squirrel king isn’t too strange.

She throws her yo-yo and lands in the street, planting herself right in the squirrel’s path. “Stop right there, Rocky!”

The squirrel stops, nearly tripping as it does. “Is that my name?”

Ladybug slings her yo-yo and lets the string wrap around the squirrel. “You tell me.”

“Ladybug!” a woman’s voice calls from above. Ladybug glances up and sees a lady peeking out a window. “That’s not the akuma!”

Ladybug pauses. The squirrel is half-heartedly wriggling against the yo-yo’s bindings, warbling about how it has no idea what’s going on and _I just woke up in front of a car dealership and I’m apparently a squirrel king, but no one else is a squirrel, and I can’t remember anything, please free me from this nightmare, please._

“Behind you!” the woman yells.

“Look out!” another voice says.

Someone slams into Ladybug, knocking her out of the way just as a beam of light whizzes past her temple. She lands on her back, looking up at blond hair and green eyes—and then her rescuer tugs her to her feet, and the two of them run into an alleyway and crouch behind a dumpster.

The smell of rotten fruit shrivels Ladybug’s nose as she turns to the person who saved her. “Thanks—wait, Adrien?”

Sure enough, crouched beside her is her long-time classmate and friend, his golden hair muted by the shadows, his eyes sparkling in the darkness, some sort of hourglass print on his black t-shirt.

“Oh, is that my name?” Adrien asks. “Good. Uh, I was about to introduce myself, and then I realized that I don’t remember who I am, so…”

“You don’t remember?” Ladybug echoes, aghast. “What do you mean, you…”

Adrien gives a helpless shrug, and Ladybug whips out her yo-yo, pulling up the latest Ladyblog entry to read it. _New face, old powers! Yet another memory-loss akuma is attacking Paris, so stay inside or take cover. This one doesn’t seem as aggressive as Oblivio, but it flies, which kind of sucks. Good luck, Ladybug and Chat Noir! And if you’ve lost your memories again, no, you’re not dating, so don’t accidentally kiss each other!_

Face burning, Ladybug snaps her yo-yo shut. Since they started dating, she and Chat Noir have kissed plenty of times, none of them by accident—but of course, Alya and the rest of Paris don’t know that.

“Sorry,” Adrien says. “Um, I don’t remember anything.”

“You got hit by an akuma,” Ladybug says. “That’s, uh…”

“A demon?” Adrien scratches his cheek and frowns. “I’m not sure why I know _that_ —”

“Right, uh, that’s what it means in Japanese,” Ladybug says. “In this case, they’re more like…possessed people who get superpowers?”

“So, people possessed by demons?”

“Sure,” Ladybug says. It doesn’t really matter if she completely explains everything to Adrien, since he’ll have his memories restored soon enough. “In this case, the akuma has the power of memory loss. I’m sorry you got hit trying to save me.”

“Actually,” Adrien says, rubbing the back of his neck, “I’d already been hit, I think? I had no idea what that thing was when I saw it going after you. I just had the feeling you shouldn’t get hit, so…” He waves his hands helplessly. “I did…that.”

Ladybug’s heart is warmed by the fact that Adrien thought to save her even when he had no memories—but her brain is frozen, stuck on that thought. After all, the guy in the squirrel suit hadn’t instinctively tried to save her. She knows Adrien is brave and kind, and of course amnesia can’t erase that, and yet…

“Why?” she blurts out. “I mean, why did you save me, if you couldn’t remember what was going on?” 

It occurs to her that Adrien does have a tiny celebrity crush on Ladybug—surely, though, that’s not enough for him to risk his life when he has no memories.

Adrien grimaces. “I don’t know. Like I said, it just felt like the right thing to do. Um, did I make a mistake?”

“No, no!” Ladybug says. “Thank you for saving me, really. I’m just impressed, is all! Most people would run the other way if they had no memories and saw an akuma.”

“Yeah.” Adrien frowns. He’s fiddling with the silver ring he always wears, his eyes fixed on something-or-nothing in the distance. “Have I done it before? Saved you?”

Riposte and a couple of other akumas flash through Ladybug’s mind, and she nods. “Yes, actually.”

“Huh,” Adrien says. “Makes sense. I must do it pretty often, for it to be instinct.”

Instinct?

“Um, right,” Ladybug says. She still doesn’t understand what prompted an amnesiac Adrien to rescue her, but she’s not going to complain. “Anyway! Your name is Adrien Agreste, and you’re kind of famous, so I should probably take you home so that the paparazzi can’t bother you.”

“Famous?” Adrien says. “For what?”

“Lots of things!” Ladybug says. “Um, good things. Not illegal things.”

“That’s…a relief?” Adrien says. “But, uh, you don’t have to take me home. I can just stay here.”

“I insist,” Ladybug says. She holds out an arm and gestures to his waist. “Do you mind if I…?”

“What?” Adrien asks, his eyes flicking down. “Oh! Sure, you can touch me.”

Ladybug firmly wraps her arm around his waist, then swings her yo-yo in the direction of the Agreste Mansion.

“Have we done _this_ before?” Adrien asks, as the wind whistles past their ears. “Because it feels really familiar.”

“I’ve saved you a few times,” Ladybug says. She lets the yo-yo release, dropping them for a few moments before she loops it around a church spire, propelling them upwards once again. “Not really often, though.”

Adrien hums to himself. “Weird. It kind of feels like we do this all the time? Like, I’m pretty comfortable in your arms. Uh, not that I’m saying—you know, that wasn’t—I just meant…yeah.”

“Well…” Ladybug pauses to adjust the yo-yo string to avoid faceplanting against a building, then says, “You don’t have any memories right now. It makes sense that a few vaguely-familiar things would stand out.”

“Right.” Adrien clears his throat, and Ladybug thinks she might spot a blush creeping across his cheeks. “That must be it.”

Ladybug grunts as she perches precariously on the sill of Adrien’s room. “Can you feel for an open window? My hands and feet are occupied.”

“This place seems pretty fancy,” Adrien says, reaching forward to press against a glass pane. “Would I really leave the windows unlocked?”

“You do pretty often,” Ladybug says. “I don’t know. Maybe you like the fresh air.” She laughs as Adrien tries another window. “Besides, it’s not like anyone besides me or Chat Noir can get up here.”

“Chat Noir?”

“Oh. Um, he’s my superhero partner,” Ladybug says, then feels compelled to add, “and boyfriend! But no one’s supposed to know that second part. I’m only telling you because you’re going to forget.”

_And because you said you feel comfortable in my arms, and blushed when you said it, and have a celebrity crush on me, so I don’t want you to get the wrong idea._

Adrien snorts. “Wow. I’m honored.”

“That came out wrong!” Ladybug says, watching as Adrien manages to get one of the windows open. “I mean, you’re very trustworthy—it’s just, we don’t know each other that well, and it’s not the sort of thing I’d normally mention to you. Why would you need to hear about a superhero’s love life, you know?”

Adrien pauses, his body blocking the open window. “You know, it’s weird that you say we don’t know each other well, because it kind of feels like we do.” He squints at her. “Do I know your civilian identity, maybe?”

“Of course not!” Ladybug says, her voice high-pitched. “I’m sure it’s just the amnesia. Now—”

Something thuds against the inside of the window to their right, and a moment later, glass crashes from inside Adrien’s room.

“That sounds like a burglary,” Adrien notes. “I thought you said no one could get into my room? Unless your boyfriend moonlights as a cat burglar _._ ”

Ladybug peers inside the room, doing her best to shield Adrien’s body with hers. A broken vase is on the ground, and the item lobbed at the window appears to be a trophy—but she doesn’t see any obvious intruders.

Besides, she and Adrien left the akuma far behind, so what could possibly be causing the damage in his room? An angry housekeeper?

“Wait,” Ladybug says. “Did you just make a _cat pun?”_

“Uh, yes,” Adrien says. “Sorry, is now a bad time for jokes? I can’t really tell. I’m kind of just going with what feels right.”

Ladybug squints at him. Is his _instinct_ really telling him that a highly dangerous situation is the best time to make puns? She just hopes Chat doesn’t show up at the mansion, or else he and Adrien might start a pun war. “It’s okay. I forgive you.”

“Thanks—wait, why are you forgiving—”

“Hold on.” Ladybug drops inside the room and carefully removes her arm from Adrien’s waist, scanning the space for danger. Some things have definitely been upended—pillows tossed on the ground, a globe knocked over, a bowl of snacks spilled everywhere—but the culprit seems to have moved on. “That’s strange…”

Keeping her eyes on the door, she quickly dials Chat’s number and watches the yo-yo screen. Once again, she’s immediately sent to voicemail, meaning that he still hasn’t transformed.

Ladybug curses. “I think Chat Noir might have gotten hit by the akuma.”

“I’m guessing that’s bad,” Adrien says. “Wait, that’s definitely bad. How can he help you fight that thing if he can’t remember?”

“He can’t,” Ladybug murmurs. “Unless his kwami got away, but…”

“Kwami?”

“It’s, um…” Ladybug trails off as a tiny wooden box floats above the couch, attached to something small and dark. “What the—”

Adrien yelps. “I’ll get it!” 

With skills that must have been earned from all his basketball practice, Adrien grabs a pillow off the ground, leaps, and tosses it straight at the black blob and its tiny box. It hits them both with such beautiful accuracy that Ladybug whistles appreciatively.

“This is unjust,” a muffled voice groans from beneath the pillow. “I know there must be more Camembert, but _where?”_

“Camembert?” Ladybug says. “Wait…”

Adrien hangs back as Ladybug creeps over to the box and picks it up. Immediately, a familiar miniature cat darts out from underneath it—but before Ladybug can say anything, Plagg zooms straight toward Adrien and smacks him in the face.

“Ow!” Adrien says, rubbing his cheek. “What the heck?”

“Cheese,” Plagg says, his tiny arms folded. “I’m hungry. Where is it? I found some earlier, but a few wheels is hardly enough—”

“Plagg,” Ladybug finally manages. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for cheese, obviously.” Before Ladybug or Adrien can stop him, he darts over to the computer on the far side of the room and bashes a few keys. “Does this unlock the cheese?”

“Um,” Adrien says.

“Plagg,” Ladybug says, joining him at the computer. “Where—”

The screen bursts to life, and a green-haired man yells _TOP O’ THE MORNING TO YA!_ Plagg hits more keys, and the video pauses, rewinds, then skips ahead, opening up a private playlist that’s titled “Cute Ladybug Clips.”

Ladybug’s face heats. She’s pretty sure that if Adrien had his memories right now, he wouldn’t want her to know that he created a playlist with cute videos of her.

“Oh, that’s you,” Adrien says, from over her shoulder. “Oh! And…that’s my playlist, apparently. Uh. I’m just gonna…”

He reaches around her and exits the browser as Plagg circles their heads, ranting about the lack of cheese plates in the room. The internet window closes, revealing a desktop background that’s a collage of Ladybugs.

Ladybug laughs awkwardly. “I see you’re a fan!”

Adrien freezes and stares at the screen. “Um…wow. I can’t remember anything right now, and I still feel like I’m going to die of embarrassment.”

“No,” Ladybug says, drawing out the word. “No, please don’t die! It’s flattering!”

“I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about,” Plagg interrupts, floating between them, “but it doesn’t sound like cheese.”

Ladybug glares at him. “Why are you here? And where’s Chat Noir?”

“Chat Noir?” Plagg repeats, sounding bored. “I’m a chat noir. And I’m here because I smelled camembert from the sidewalk. I’ve eaten what I could find, but that wasn’t nearly enough.”

“Did you lose your memories?” Ladybug asks.

That can’t be good. If only Plagg lost his memories, Chat would have transformed anyway, or at least found a way to contact Ladybug—which means that both of them probably lost their memories. Which means that Ladybug has no way of finding her partner, and she’ll probably have to go hunt down one of the other heroes, and she’ll also spend the entire battle worrying about whether or not her boyfriend is safe.

“Who needs memories?” Plagg asks. “I just want food.”

“We can get you that!” Adrien says cheerily. “Just, uh, tell us where Chat Noir is?”

Plagg hums. “What does he look like?”

“Blond?” Ladybug says, cringing. “And he has green eyes! Um, and…a nice jawline?”

Shrugging, Plagg points to Adrien. “Is that him?”

Ladybug sighs. Despite having dated Chat Noir for a few months now, she still doesn’t know enough about his civilian life to describe him to Plagg. She has no idea what he might have been doing, or wearing, or where he could have been when Plagg got hit by the akuma.

“What is that, by the way?” Adrien whispers, pointing to Plagg. “Why do you think he knows where your partner is?”

“He’s a kwami,” Ladybug says, because explaining things to Adrien distracts her from the anxiety creeping into her mind. “Every superhero has a piece of jewelry and a kwami that’s connected to it.”

Adrien squints at her. “Where’s your—uh, quoi…?”

“Kwami.” Ladybug taps her earrings. “She’s in here. If we say the kwami’s name and _transforme-moi,_ they go inside our jewelry and transform us.”

“Your transformation phrase is _transform me?”_ Adrien says. “I kind of expected something more…exciting?”

“I don’t make the rules,” Ladybug says. “Anyway! Plagg, were you with anyone when you woke up?”

“I suppose I’m Plagg,” Plagg says. He’s floating on his back, peddling his feet to lazily propel himself through the air. “And I don’t remember. I left to follow the cheese right away.”

Ladybug resists the urge to tug on her hair. Really, it doesn’t matter where Chat was when he got hit—knowing him, he’s raced off to save someone by now, memories or not. She’ll never be able to find him, and it’s unlikely that Plagg can help with no holder and no memories.

Time to go grab a back-up Miraculous, then. The Fox, maybe…or the Turtle, to defend against the akuma’s amnesia blasts…

“What does the jewelry look like?” Adrien asks. “Maybe we can find him that way?”

“No use,” Ladybug says. “The ring doesn’t look like a Miraculous when he’s detransformed, and tons of people wear rings, so it would be like looking for a needle in a—”

“Could it be this?” Adrien asks, holding up his hand. His signature silver ring gleams in the light. “I mean, I’ve kind of been feeling like I should be doing something with it, but then I kept thinking, what would I do with a ring? But that would actually make sense—I mean, if I’m just supposed to say, uh—it’s Plagg, right? So, like, if I just said, _Plagg, transforme-moi—”_

Plagg yelps and zooms toward Adrien as green light surrounds both of them. It flashes and fades, and then Chat Noir is standing in Adrien’s place.

Chat Noir.

Adrien.

Sure!

Wait.

“Hey!” Adrien—no, _Chat Noir,_ is that really Chat Noir?—says, looking at his clawed hands. “That actually worked! I felt kind of crazy, but everything you said just felt so _familiar_ , and every time you mentioned your partner, I got this weird feeling in my chest, and—and—Ladybug? Is…something wrong?”

Ladybug’s muscles are frozen, her mouth making tiny movements like a fish _glub-glubbing._

Adrien just transformed into Chat Noir. Of course, the most likely reason is that he’s Chat Noir, but Ladybug can not, _must not,_ ignore the other equally likely explanations.

It is _just as plausible_ that Chat got hit by the akuma, and then saw Adrien walking past him, and decided to trade rings—because that’s what you do when you lose your memory and meet someone, right? Right. And then Chat went off to get some ice cream, because that’s _also_ what you do when you lose your memory and there’s a monster attacking the city. Naturally! And then Adrien happened to see Ladybug, and instinctively knew to save her, because that’s _basically_ the equivalent of a nice boy helping an elderly person cross the road, and…and…

And who is she kidding?

Adrien is Chat Noir.

“Ladybug?” Adrien—Chat—Chatdrien says, more timidly. “Did I do something wrong?”

“I’m not supposed to know your identity!” Ladybug says, covering her mouth. Even then, her wide eyes probably give away the cocktail of horror and panic flooding her veins. “We’ve been keeping our identities secret for years! Literal years!”

Chatdrien’s eyes narrow. “Wait, you’re dating me but you can’t know who I am?”

“Well, I know now!” Ladybug snaps. “Wait, oh my god. We’re dating.”

“We’re dating!” Chatdrien echoes. “Phew. I thought it was kind of weird that I felt madly in love with you when you’re supposedly dating this Chat Noir guy, but apparently I’m the Chat Noir guy!” He snaps and points two finger guns at Ladybug. “Awesome.”

“Not awesome!” Ladybug says. “We just accidentally blew your secret identity!”

“Right. Yes. I guess.” Chatdrien rubs the back of his neck. “At least Plagg isn’t begging for cheese anymore? And you found your missing partner!” He grimaces, little fangs peeking out between his lips. “I don’t remember how this whole superhero thing goes, which is a little inconvenient, but I’m sure you can fill me in, right? Or we can skip the tutorial, if we’re really pressed for—”

Ladybug silences him with a finger against his lips. Chatdrien’s eyes widen, and his cheeks darken—and that is completely, one-hundred percent the look Chat Noir gives her whenever he’s flustered and enchanted by her.

This is definitely Chat Noir.

Ladybug just has to focus on _that._ She found Chat Noir, which means she can proceed with her plan from before: remind him how his Miraculous works, develop a strategy, and then go beat the stupid akuma.

She can do all of that, and temporarily ignore the fact that he’s—well— _you know._ The other boy.

The other boy, whose room they’re standing in, whose photos Ladybug used to tape to her wall, whose face is still imprinted on her eyelids from before the flash of neon light.

And…nope. No escaping it. Chat Noir is Adrien Agreste.

Delicately, Chat grabs Ladybug’s wrist and lowers her finger from his lips. “Um, I know you just…did that, but you’re not saying anything, so, uh—what’s the plan?”

“You’re Adrien,” Ladybug says.

“Okay,” Chat says, “not exactly my definition of a plan, but since you’re the one who still has their memories—”

“Sorry,” Ladybug says, shaking her head. “I keep getting stuck on that. See, uh, we’ve been friends as civilians for years, but we’ve been secretly dating as superheroes, and I wasn’t expecting this, and I definitely wasn’t expecting it to happen because of an amnesia akuma, and—”

“Hey,” Chat says softly. He hesitates, then places his hands on her shoulders. “Ladybug, I’m sorry. I should have checked about secret identities before transforming. I just knew you were looking for your partner, and—”

“No!” Ladybug says. “No apologies.”

“But of _course_ you weren’t supposed to know!” Chat groans. “If you didn’t know my identity despite dating me, then obviously it was supposed to be a secret.” He sighs and looks up at the ceiling. “Curses. My thoughts turned to mush in the presence of the pretty bug lady.”

Ladybug snorts. “Bug lady?”

“Would you prefer _buguinette? My lady?”_

“Oh, my god,” Ladybug says, snickering. “You didn’t recognize your room or your kwami, but your pet names for me are that ingrained in your head?”

Chat grins. “Priorities.”

Ladybug exhales heavily. She still hasn’t completely processed Chat Noir’s secret identity—no, that will take several hours, if not several days or weeks—but her partner’s familiar goofiness is putting her at ease. Even without his memories, he knows just how to reassure her.

“Alright,” she finally says. “I’ll fill you in.”

She quickly explains Chat Noir’s powers, his weapon, the usual flow of an akuma battle. He listens carefully, asking his only question when Ladybug mentions that sometimes she uses his tail for Lucky Charm solutions.

“Do you want me to take that off now?” he asks, reaching behind himself.

“No!” Ladybug says.

Yelping, Chat snatches his hand back and holds up his arms in surrender. “Not touching it! Uh, does something bad happen if I do? Does it trigger my detransformation? Do I lose a life?”

“No,” Ladybug says, “and _no,_ you only have one life per battle, so please don’t jump in and get yourself killed.”

Chat’s fingers curl limply, and his tail droops slightly. “Have I done that before?”

“We don’t need to talk about that right now,” Ladybug says, her eyes flicking away. They land on the computer screen full of Ladybug pictures, and she suddenly feels like cackling.

Her boyfriend has pictures of her on his desktop. And a _playlist._ Not that Ladybug isn’t just as guilty—she has her own library of Chat Noir pictures and videos, after all—but she still finds it hilariously adorable.

“Right,” Chat says. “So, uh, why can’t I take it off?”

“Oh, I mean, you can,” Ladybug says, meeting his eyes again. “But you look cute with the tail, so…”

Chat raises an eyebrow. “Do you usually flirt this much during akuma battles?”

“What?” Ladybug squawks. “Me? I’m not a flirt!”

“I don’t know,” Chat says, crossing his arms. His tail flicks back and forth behind him, and he smirks. “You swept me off my feet and carried me here in your arms—tenderly placed a finger upon my lips—told me I look cute in my superhero suit—”

“None of that was flirting!” Ladybug says. “Okay, if your fighting is as good as your teasing, you should be fine. Just remember: once you use Cataclysm, you have five minutes until you detransform. If that happens, you’ll need to feed Plagg again…but since he ate all the Camembert here—”

“Oh, uh, actually…” Chat smiles awkwardly. “Before I saved you earlier, I was searching for my wallet to see if I had an ID on me—which, uh, I didn’t. My jeans were almost too skinny to hold a chapstick.”

“Right,” Ladybug says, and she realizes one very important piece of information: _it is now okay to check out Adrien whenever he wears tight jeans._ “Um, and?”

“No wallet,” Chat repeats. “But I found a plastic case with cheese inside my shirt pocket, so I think I’ll be fine.”

“You had cheese that whole time?” Ladybug says. “Why didn’t you say something to Plagg? We could’ve gotten him to cooperate sooner!”

“I didn’t know what he was!” Chat said. “All I knew was that he trashed my room! And that he was some sort of supernatural creature. Who offers cheese to a supernatural creature without knowing what’s going on? That’s how you get your soul eaten.”

Ladybug snorts. “Sure. Are you ready to go?”

“I think so.” Chat carefully reaches behind his back and retrieves his baton. “Oh, actually…am I going to remember any of this later? Once you’ve marvelous ladybugged—”

“Miraculous Ladybug,” Ladybug corrects. “And…probably not. We both had our memories reset after the last memory loss akuma.”

“There was another?”

“Yeah. This time, I’ll probably remember everything, but…” Ladybug smiles and jerks a thumb toward his computer screen. “At least you won’t remember that I saw that, huh?”

“But I also won’t remember that you know my identity.” Chat tosses the baton from one hand to the other. “Um, you’re going to fill me in, right?”

“I…” Ladybug hesitates, though she’s not sure why. “I don’t see why not.”

“Ladybug,” Chat says, “I want to know that you know. And…well, I guess you won’t tell me _your_ identity _,_ but—”

“I might,” Ladybug blurts out. “I mean, I probably should. I need time to process yours, but then, I mean…”

Chat reaches forward with his free hand and takes one of hers. “You don’t have to. But Ladybug, even with no memories, I’m sure I love whoever’s on the other side of that mask.”

Ladybug’s cheeks flush. Even after all this time, Chat’s declarations of love never fail to make her stomach flutter. “W-well—I—um, I sure hope so! Or else you’ve just been pretending to like civilian-me this whole time.”

“Impossible,” Chat says, smiling softly. He reattaches his baton to his back, then reaches up and cups Ladybug’s cheek with his hand. The fingers of his other hand are still intertwined with hers, squeezing lightly. “Say, um…have we kissed? If we haven’t, never mind, but—”

“We have!” Ladybug says, stepping forward. “We definitely have.”

“Oh! We have. Cool.” Chat blinks rapidly, then clears his throat. “I know I’ll remember once we beat this akuma, but at this moment, I don’t remember any of those kisses, and maybe it’s just because my head is really empty right now, but I keep thinking that I’d really, really like to kiss you, so, if it’s not too much trouble…”

He bites his lip and looks away, his cheeks darkening even more.

Ladybug smiles and cups Chat’s face with her hand, then leans forward and presses a soft kiss to his lips. He practically melts into her, humming quietly against her lips—and when Ladybug pulls away, his eyes are lidded, transfixed on her mouth.

“Normally we’d get more carried away than that,” Ladybug says, blushing, “but, uh…akuma.”

“Akuma,” Chat echoes, sounding a little dazed.

Ladybug taps him on the nose. “Earth to Chat? Did that kiss wipe your memories, too?”

“If I say it did, will you kiss me again?”

Ladybug rolls her eyes. “I’ll kiss you once we beat this akuma.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Chat says. “Or, I mean, technically I won’t, but…” He taps his lips. “My lips will remember. And they’ll be waiting.”

“Sure.” Ladybug laughs and glances out the window. “Well, let’s not keep them waiting too long, chaton.”

As Chat stutters a response, she tosses her yo-yo out the window and leaps—knowing that, memories or not, her partner will still be right behind her.


End file.
